From PC World yesterday:
The Board took this action after John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, was caught posting anonymously to Yahoo Bulletin Boards. In these posts he attacked Wiled Oats Markets, a competitor of Whole Foods. Now the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods to prevent them from acquiring Wild Oats because the content it would be anti-competitive and are using the posts as evidence to support their case.After its CEO got caught bashing competitors and talking up his company's stock in anonymous Internet forum posts, Whole Foods Market Inc. late last week changed its corporate conduct policy to ban company leaders from posting anything online about the company.
On Nov. 2, Whole Foods amended its corporate code of conduct, noting that no member of company leadership could "make any posting to any noncompany sponsored Internet chat room, message board, Web log [blog] or similar forum concerning any matter involving the company, its competitors or vendors, either under their name, anonymously, under a screen name or communicating through another person" without the approval of the governance committee at Whole Foods. Violation of the policy is grounds for dismissal, the policy said.
The article goes on to quote Josh Bernoff from Forrester which said that:
...while many companies are currently hammering out policies with regard to what employees can say online, Whole Foods' policy "is an overreaction -- perhaps an appropriate overreaction, given what happened" with Mackey.
"The very tight restrictions on online speech here are clearly a reaction to the posts of the CEO," Bernoff said. "That level of reaction is unusual."
I like Microsoft's policy which according to Bernoff can be summed up in a single sentence: "Don't be stupid." Trust... ah now I remember what that feels like!
Companies which are moving swiftly to embrace social media and social networking and other Web 2.0 communication projects are probably thinking more about how to adjust their employee code of conduct to manage conversations individuals are having online. At SAP, Jeff Nolan worked on a blogging code of conduct maybe three years ago? But I don't think I've seen it since then. Mike?
Its a shame to see this happening at Whole Foods though. My engagement with companies like Fresh Direct here in New York is completely online. Whole Foods and I have a similar relationship. I don't even want to begin to tell you how much we spend at FreshDirect but the comments I give them on service and quality are rich and many. I appreciate the opportunity to engage with them virtually in an ongoing conversation about their products and services (By way of disclosure, I do know Steve Druckman, Fresh Direct's CMO. He is a member of my Creative Good Council. I think in the end, Whole Foods is cutting themselves off from their market in a way that may be potentially harmful to the business. Well, maybe they need a little humility. It will be interesting to watch corporate performance and see if they are indeed impacted.
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